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FPSC Classic Product Chat / Suggestion: Change the Minimum Requirements

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SkyCubes
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Posted: 15th Feb 2005 02:53
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I think that the minimum requirements should be revised. I've tried FPSC on a machine that is a 1.6Ghz P4, 512MB Ram and a 64MB video card (Radeon) with a clean format/install of Windows XP Pro SP2. The program will install and run fine. But, just adding a simple map with two prefabs connected by a short hallway and 8 entites made the lag ridiculous.

People need to know that this is a great software tool, but it's going to require a mid to high-end machine to run it. You need at least a 128mb video and a P4 2.0Ghz processor. Just my opinion.

"Beware of people who try and belittle your ambitions. Small people do that. The really great people are the ones who make you feel that you too can become great" --Mark Twain
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Chimera
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Posted: 15th Feb 2005 02:58
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1.0 GHZ and indeed it runs quite slow. I don't get it: jasuks game works fine and is quite big (runs pretty fast and smooth). But when I make 2 prefabs with some entities indeed it lags like hell!

Don't eat yellow snow!
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SkyCubes
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Posted: 15th Feb 2005 03:08
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@Chimera: I know, same thing here. I know that if you create hallways without a ceiling, forget about it. I can't even get the player to take a step. I've also found that if you look down at the floor while walking, the FPS jumps way up.

Anyway, I've got a 128MB card at home and I've already ordered a new 256MB card. I'm also upgrading to 1.5MB Ram from 768. Hopefully that will be enough to make it run smoothly so I can create more complex levels.

Right now, I'm just sticking to small stuff just to learn the editor.

"Beware of people who try and belittle your ambitions. Small people do that. The really great people are the ones who make you feel that you too can become great" --Mark Twain
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Logan 5
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Posted: 15th Feb 2005 03:28
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One of my machines has basically the same specs as fdecker's, except that I have 256 megs on the vid card, and FPSC runs very smoothly. My frame rates are staying consistently high, too, even with some very complex levels.

Basically dark.
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SkyCubes
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Posted: 15th Feb 2005 03:30
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Logan, do you mean they are the same as the specs in the first post? That will be important information for me.

Thanks.

"Beware of people who try and belittle your ambitions. Small people do that. The really great people are the ones who make you feel that you too can become great" --Mark Twain
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Logan 5
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Posted: 15th Feb 2005 03:32
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@fdecker:

Exactly. You might try upgrading the vid. I'd be interested in knowing if that would help.

Basically dark.
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Ominous
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Posted: 15th Feb 2005 03:40 Edited at: 15th Feb 2005 03:41
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I experienced minor to mid lag throught 95% of the sample game with 2.4GHz AMD Processor, 1 GB DDR Ram, 128MB Radeon 9700SE Pro, Windows XP, and DirectX 9.0c. I have to assume it's the processor, since my Graphics Card and RAM are the recommended size. Plus the fact that I set my graphics card to Optimal Performance rather than Quality, and it didn't speed up much.

Now is the winter of your discontent.
-Stewie from Family Guy
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Logan 5
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Posted: 15th Feb 2005 03:56
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Quote: "I have to assume it's the processor"


I don't think so, Ominous. I think it's the video card, based on testing on a couple of my machines. You have more processor power and more ram than I do on the machine I mentioned earlier, but I have a more powerful card, and everything is running great.

Basically dark.
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Ominous
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Posted: 15th Feb 2005 04:07
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This is the first "game" I've bought that has had any trouble. I don't play many FPS's but I do have Battlefield 1942, and I've never experiences any lag with that game or Rome: Total War, when I've had armies when together had 1,000+ units fighting.

Now is the winter of your discontent.
-Stewie from Family Guy
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game Spacer
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Posted: 15th Feb 2005 04:09
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I have an Athlon2400+ (2.0GHZ),Radeon X800 Pro 256MB,Win XP Pro SP2,
512MB DDR ram DirectX9.0c and I experiencing some minor lags too.
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SkyCubes
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Posted: 15th Feb 2005 04:13
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game spacer,

If you're experiencing lag with an X800 then I may have just wasted my money on a new card.

UGH!

"Beware of people who try and belittle your ambitions. Small people do that. The really great people are the ones who make you feel that you too can become great" --Mark Twain
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game Spacer
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Posted: 15th Feb 2005 04:20 Edited at: 15th Feb 2005 04:32
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fdecker
When testing a small level I have been getting around a two second
"freeze" quite frequently,I am assuming that FPSC is a wip that will
probably improve (hopefully).

BTW I am also using the latest Catalyst5.2 driver
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SoulMan
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Posted: 15th Feb 2005 04:43
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With the EA release I think there is more room for improvement. In fact, I am kinda curious if both the 3D Rendering window and when you get into the game is compiled in Dark Basic Pro. What if it were to be compiled in Dark SDK? Also, I think the file format needs to be looked at. Portals I think are not as fast as it could be. What about moving towards BSP like or something a little different. For example, when testing a level, are the walls you don't see or will never see during the game, are they rendered during game play or not?
I was testing a level using the [ and ] key to see what was being rendered at a given time and it looked like there was more being rendered then what should have been. For example, the Scifi game sample that comes with FPSC. I was watching what was being rendered and it looked it was grabbing stuff that it shouldn't be. I think there is work to be done on it to make it better but I think Lee knows this and is busy working on it.
SoulMan

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OSX Using Happy Dude
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Posted: 15th Feb 2005 05:10
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Quote: "What if it were to be compiled in Dark SDK?"

It would be much faster. I think the speed limit with DBPro as it stands, without improving the compiler and thus the subsequent output, has been reached... The compiler is in an desperate need to be made more efficient.

Visit http://homepages.nildram.co.uk/~nickk/
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Ominous
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Posted: 15th Feb 2005 05:47
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Quote: "I have an Athlon2400+ (2.0GHZ),Radeon X800 Pro 256MB,Win XP Pro SP2, 512MB DDR ram DirectX9.0c and I experiencing some minor lags too."


If he has a Radeon X800 and is still experiencing lag, then it has to be the processor. A Radeon X800 should be able to completely devour this thing and then some.

Now is the winter of your discontent.
-Stewie from Family Guy
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game Spacer
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Posted: 15th Feb 2005 06:12
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"If he has a Radeon X800 and is still experiencing lag, then it has to be the processor. A Radeon X800 should be able to completely devour this thing and then some."

I experienced this while testing a small two room three entity level
and using the mouse to look around,the scene would "freeze/stick" as I said for a couple of seconds.This also happened when trying the example levels,my processor aint exactly state of the art I know
but it should'nt be a problem.

Another small niggle I noticed was when applying changes to an entity by altering the script options clicking on the "Apply" button
after does'nt always work the first time.For one reason or another there is definately a lag.
If it does'nt improve in later updates I'll may have to get another 512mb stick of ram or more.
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Zone Chicken
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Posted: 15th Feb 2005 07:09 Edited at: 15th Feb 2005 07:23
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Could it be you guys are using 512 texture settings? This will eat the hell out of your graphics ram causing slow down. The minimum specs on the help are more then likely for 128 texture's and no pixel shaders and lightmaps. 512 texture's with pixel shader and lightmaps are going to take a high end system's like any game.

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Ominous
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Posted: 15th Feb 2005 07:15
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I'm not extremely computer savvy. How would I go about adjusting it to 128 textures. I've already set my card for optimal performance. I figured it would have taken care of lowering the textures.

Now is the winter of your discontent.
-Stewie from Family Guy
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jasuk70
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Posted: 15th Feb 2005 07:17
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@Ominous, in the preferences window of the FPSC Editor file menu, you can select the texture quality.

Jas

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"What is this talk of 'release'? Klingons do not'release' software. It escapes leaving a bloody trail of developers and quality assurance people in its wake!"
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SkyCubes
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Posted: 15th Feb 2005 07:36
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ZC,

On your suggestion I decided to look into it on my machine here at home. I had it set to pixel shaders on and 256 textures. But, I tried it both lower and higher and there wasn't a difference on the build time for the test mode. I even set it to full shadow lightmapping and 512 textures. Same build time for test and same frame rate during the test.

That's on a 128mb video, 768MB Ram, and 1.8Ghz processor.

"Beware of people who try and belittle your ambitions. Small people do that. The really great people are the ones who make you feel that you too can become great" --Mark Twain
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SkyCubes
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Posted: 15th Feb 2005 07:37
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duh,

Nevermind. I was setting all that in the Build settings, not preferences.

Thanks.

"Beware of people who try and belittle your ambitions. Small people do that. The really great people are the ones who make you feel that you too can become great" --Mark Twain
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uman
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Posted: 15th Feb 2005 08:20
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The default setting for FPSC is for games to use a texture size of 128, so if you have not changed anything thats what it should be using.
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Nevster
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Posted: 15th Feb 2005 09:50
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Playing is slow on my system too. The sample game ran fine...but my first game is choppy as hell. I'm running an Athlon 1.6GHZ, ATI 9600XT w/256MB and have 1 GB of RAM! The product is great, but I hope they get a fix for this fast...
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SoulMan
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Posted: 15th Feb 2005 10:47
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Nevster,
Make sure you have the latest Drivers for everything. Video Card, Direct X etc.. Also make sure that your video card settings aren't getting in the way. Do you have AA turned on? That could do it right there. I have AA turned on and it still runs great for me. However while testing my level I discovered something.
Say you have a simple 4x4 room with a ceiling. Each wall I noticed has two sides. Let's call one side A and the other B. Here a screen shot of the room. What I have noticed while testing the game using the [ or ] is that in a sealed room where you couldn't get out to see the other side is that side B was being rendered. With Portal rendering, I don't think that is suppose to happen. There should be no rendering for side B at all. Only side A. I am curious if Lee is still working on getting this corrected or still looking for ways to speed up the game. This would be one I can think of.
SoulMan

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